Islamabad: Former US presidential candidate John McCain during a visit to Islamabad on Saturday urged Pakistan to take steps to prevent tensions with India rising in the wake of last week's militant attacks on Mumbai.
Senator McCain was in Islamabad with a Senate delegation that met Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani and other leading politicians, having visited New Delhi a day earlier in a trip arranged before the crisis erupted.
“I believe that timely, transparent cooperation and specific acts on the part of the government of Pakistan will avert any further deepening of this crisis,'' McCain told a news conference at a military airbase in Rawalpindi.
He said that his meetings had encouraged him to believe that the Government ''would show that cooperation in words as well as deeds''.
At least 171 people, including six Americans, were killed in Mumbai in a three-day rampage that India has blamed on Islamist militants based in Pakistan.
Pakistan has condemned the attacks and vowed full cooperation in investigations but has called for evidence from New Delhi about any Pakistani involvement in the assault.
Gilani informed the senators that Pakistan had proposed the formation of a joint commission headed by the national security advisers of both countries, along with intelligence agency officials, according to a statement released by his office.
Senator Joe Lieberman said that the militants were trying to drive a wedge between countries engaged in a common fight against terrorism and extremism.
''They were attempting to attack and divide India, and Pakistan and the United States,'' Lieberman said.
Their comments echoed those of US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who visited New Delhi and Islamabad this week in a bid to lower tensions between the two countries.
Comments
0 comment